Related papers: Interaction of colloids with a nematic-isotropic i…
Free interfaces of liquid crystals tend to minimise both capillarity and anchoring forces. Here we study nematic films in planar and radial geometries with antagonistic anchoring boundary conditions and one deformable interface. Assuming a…
The effects of contact-line pinning are well-known in macroscopic systems, but are only just beginning to be explored at the microscale in colloidal suspensions. We use digital holography to capture the fast three-dimensional dynamics of…
The geometric shape, symmetry, and topology of colloidal particles often allow for controlling colloidal phase behavior and physical properties of these soft matter systems. In liquid crystalline dispersions, colloidal particles with low…
We establish, as $\rho\to 0$, an asymptotic expansion for the minimal Dirichlet energy of $\mathbb S^2$-valued maps outside a finite number of three-dimensional particles of size $\rho$ with fixed centers $x_j\in\mathbb{R}^3$, under general…
The phase-field-crystal model is used to access the structure and thermodynamics of interfaces between two coexisting liquid crystalline phases in two spatial dimensions. Depending on the model parameters there is a variety of possible…
A Self Consistent Field Theory description of equilibrium, but non uniform, configurations adopted by semi flexible liquid crystal molecules is presented. Two cases are considered, isotropic-nematic phase boundaries, and topological defects…
Within a general framework we study the effective, deformation-induced interaction between two colloids trapped at a fluid interface. As an application, we consider the interface deformation owing to the electrostatic field of charged…
Nematic tactoids are spindle-shaped droplets of a nematic phase nucleated in the co-existing isotropic phase. According to equilibrium theory, their internal structure and shape are controlled by a balance between the elastic deformation of…
We consider a Landau-de Gennes model for a polydisperse, inhomogeneous suspension of colloidal inclusions in a nematic host, in the dilute regime. We study the homogenised limit and compute the effective free energy of the composite…
The new free energy functional that describes general elastic interaction between colloidal particles and nematic liquid crystal has been proposed. It generalizes results of the paper \cite{lupe} on the case of arbitrary orientation of…
We present a detailed analysis of the effective force between two smooth spherical colloids floating at a fluid interface due to deformations of the interface. The results hold in general and are applicable independently of the source of…
We present large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of a nematic-isotropic interface in a system of repulsive ellipsoidal molecules, focusing in particular on the capillary wave fluctuations of the interfacial position. The interface…
We study the phase behavior of a nematic liquid crystal confined between a flat substrate with strong anchoring and a patterned substrate whose structure and local anchoring strength we vary. By first evaluating an effective surface free…
We examine the behavior of spherical silica particles trapped at an air-nematic liquid crystal interface. When a strong normal anchoring is imposed, the beads spontaneously form various structures depending on their area density and the…
The interface of a cholesteric liquid crystal with an isotropic fluid can display a range of unusual properties, such as a layer of topological defects close to an undulated interface. These properties have been know for a long time and…
Within the Onsager theory we study free planar isotropic-nematic interfaces in binary mixtures of hard rods. For sufficiently different particle shapes the bulk phase diagrams of these mixtures exhibit a triple point, where an isotropic (I)…
In this thesis, the electrostatic interaction between two chemically identical colloids, both carrying constant surface potential is studied in the limit of short inter-particle separation at the interface of two immiscible fluids. Using an…
Density functional theory is used to study colloidal hard-rod fluids near an individual right-angled wedge or edge as well as near a hard wall which is periodically patterned with rectangular barriers. The Zwanzig model, in which the…
Within an Onsager-like density functional theory we explore the thermodynamic and structural properties of an isotropic and nematic fluid of hard needle-like colloids in contact with a hard substrate coated with a soft short-ranged…
We present numerical and analytic results for uniaxial and biaxial order at the isotropic-nematic interface within Ginzburg-Landau-de Gennes theory. We study the case where an oblique anchoring condition is imposed asymptotically on the…